Oneshots
by Cerberos
Summary: Based on Tumblr prompts, Unbetaed.
1. Chapter 1 Akafuri

_NOOOO. NO WAY. NO. HELL NO. NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL._

WHY? Why do mean things always happen to him? Was he cursed? As far as he knew he a nice _WHY?_

It had all started a week ago.

Kagetora-san had given them assignments that had to be completed at all costs within a week's time. the clincher in that deal was that it accounted for almost 60% of credit.

But _of course_ he had to while away two precious days of the week gaming with Fukuda before even starting to research for the damnable assignment. Which made him eventually come to the realization that unless he foregoes sleep for the next four days, he would be in knee deep shit with no reprieve whatsoever.

And so, he manned up, hoarded up an entire week's supply of junk food, a bottle of Tums at the ready and started slogging his way through the cumbersome assignment. There wouldn't have been a chance in fucking hell if he didn't do this, he reasoned.

What he hadn't expected when he submitted the report today (yesterday?) evening just before the clock ran out, with a smile as bright as the SUN on his zombie face, was to hear Kagetora-san to tell him that there was a test he needed to complete to get the effing credit.

But OF COURSE there HAD to be a fucking catch. 60% credit for just an assignment had sounded too good to be true. They just HAD to hand his ass to him this way. He knew, he just knew, fate would never be kind to him. Hadn't ever been. Will never be. It had to be just a stroke of sheer luck that he had completed the assignment on time.

Pondering over his misfortunes wouldn't get him anywhere, he thought, as he rushed to his room to frantically go through the notes for some last minute preparations. He needed to make sure that he knew what he was going to write a whole damnable two hour test about instead of letting his sleep addled brain take over.

By the time he deemed that he had reached the if-I-am-going-to-get-screwed-then-so-be-it stage of learning, it was 1AM. Arming himself with his laptop and charger he went to the study hall thinking that at this time of the night, he can take the test in peace and then wallow in misery for the rest of the school year.

He thought wrong.

He stood there at the entrance of the hall and just gawked.

Apparently everybody else had gotten the same memo that it was a fun idea to take up the test at 1AM too. All the machines were plugged in and were being abused by fellow zombies. He searched high and low for a place to sit and get wrecked but to no avail. And excuse him for being a person who is not good with crowds. There is pleasure in solitude, thank you very much.

He heaved a weary sigh and resigned himself to the fact that he was going to not take the test and consequently fail a year before he remembered the Starbucks near the campus. He brightened up instantly and literally fled to the coffee shop.

The strong smell of coffee and freshly baked brownies calmed him down a little as he sat in the corner to finally, finally, take the exam. He ordered a soy latte with whipped cram and chocolate sprinkle, and taking a sip of the delicious drink, he opened up the browser to begin the fated exam. It was a mile-long questionnaire with a time limit of two hours and it had to be done online.

When he was halfway done with only 50 minutes left to go his laptop notified him : Sorry buddy, I love you but I have only 10% charge right now, so I am gonna die soon if you don't feed me immediately.

His blood ran cold.

That brought him to his current disposition.

Raking a hand through his chestnut hair which hadn't seen a shower in forever he scourged for a plug point for his charger before his dear grandmother-of-a-laptop decided to bail on him. He discovered to his ever growing dismay, he had been at THE ONE end that didn't have a power source.

Oh, someone up there was having a free hand with their bitch pass. And as usual, HE was the bait.

He looked around to find two other corners filled with dead-to-the-world students like him using their technical accessories which where, unfortunately, plugged in, That left him the corner right across him.

The guy sitting there quite regally and sipping whatever he had ordered out of his cup was typing away at his phone. Kouki discovered with brimming relief that there was a plug point near him and he wasn't using it.

But Kouki felt like not moving an inch from where he was now. His self preservation instincts which usually proved very very useful were warning him to stay at a minimum ten mile radius from the red-haired guy.

Now that he looked closely the guy was what one would call beautiful. He had red eyes that were too big for his face, a really sharp aristocratic nose, high cheekbones and a killer jaw line. His red hair wasn't exactly red either, it was more like crimson met magenta and had horny night. Sure at past 2AM, if the guy didn't have a disheveled look, then there was a problem. He had a frown on his lovely face and his jaw seemed tense as well. At this his instincts warned him to NEVER do anything to even instigate that expression.

Which riled up quite a bit. After all there were only 45 minutes left and his laptop wasn't going to charge itself. Well, he said to himself, fate has played with him from first, so if he was going to get screwed royally, he might as well do a damn good job of it. He steeled himself, carried his laptop, charger and latte across the shop, all the while his instincts screeching at him to stay the fuck away, and sat down near the drop dead gorgeous but very pissed redhead.

The guy looked up from is phone and fixed him a glare that would have frozen the Amazon. Though that made him shiver from his hair tip to toe nails he chose to ignore it and fed his starved laptop its desired food. And only when his laptop thanked him by showing him the plugged in sign, he looked at the guy and said, "Hey dude, I am really sorry but i have this online exam that is essential to me getting my sorry ass to the next year and my laptop was dying. Since you were the only person not using the point, I had to come here. So if you will excuse me, I will continue my path to self destruction now."

He promptly chose to ignore the looks of go-up-in-flames the redhead gave him in favor of the task at hand. He, of course, felt the glares that the redhead sent his way (did he even blink?) but he stood his ground. Intimidatingly attractive or not, his future was more important.

Soon thinking about solutions to different and extremely complex problems contained in the reservoir of questions that bombarded him made him forget everything else, stunning-but-irritated-redhead included.

It wasn't until he had finished and had pressed submit with only one minute left to go that he let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. He had done it! The feeling of exhilaration reverberated through his exhausted frame before he remembered where he was. Probably wasn't the place to tap dance in joy.

Sighing audibly, he worked out the kinks in his back and shoulders that had come from slouching in from his poorly lit laptop for so long. It was almost 3:30 and his week of minimal-to-none sleep was catching up to him. He felt like a zombie right now and couldn't wait to drop face down on his lumpy mattress fully clothed and not wake up for another century. When he rotated his stiff neck to the side, he noticed that the redhead was still sitting next to him. Closer up, he noticed the redhead was even more attractive; his hair which was defying gravity at the moment looked super silky to touch, his red eyes with elongated pupils looked bloodshot and had bags underneath, his cheeks were a little sunken but that added to his I-am-better-than-Michelangelo's-David look and he had a jawline to kill for. His fingers were long and lean as they typed away what-not at his phone and he wore a turtleneck that clung to him and highlighted his lithe features. He knew from one glance that guy worked out at the gym at least three times a week and probably had better abs than him. He could sense that he was strong too. He was positive that if they stood head to head they would be the same height. His musings were cut short when a silken voice snapped, "Are you done?"

He was shocked to say the least. Not only did the guy have a fine art body that he would sell magazines like hot cakes but his voice was like a siren too? Are there even male sirens? Did they exist? Did they take up human forms and come to Starbucks at 3AM on a school night? He shook his mind clear of thoughts when he heard someone clear their throat.

"Aah, yeah! Done! The test went okay, I guess. Oh, i never got to thank you. Thanks man. I couldn't have done it if hadn't let me."

"Congratulations on finishing your arduous examination. Its the least I can say for someone who barged into my personal space, used it as there own, without so much as an apology, and after completing, openly ogling at me." He said sardonically.

Kouki did a double take. This didn't sit well with him. He growled,"Hey, I had no choice. It was the only station available and you weren't even using it. And as far as I can remember, I did offer up an you are going to be all high and mighty about this well too bad dude, you got the wrong guy."

The guy looked like he was going to protest when he cut him off saying,"And besides, its not my fault you are breathtaking! If you knew I was drooling at you, you should have said so instead of letting me continue."

"..."

"..."

"...did you just call me breathtaking?"

"..."

Kouki felt his entire body flush at that, Oh holy crap. He hadn't meant to say that out loud! Definitely not to the guy's incredible face! He cursed his sleepy brain for not bothering to filter his thoughts. He looked down at his lap wishing the ground would open up and swallow him now, right now. He chanced a glance in the guy's direction to see if was more livid than he was before but felt his eyes widen slightly at the expression the other wore.

The redhead was blushing.

Blushing just a shade of lighter than his hair from one end of his ear to the other and looking at him incredulously.

They both averted their eyes immediately when they realized that they were staring at each other for too long to be considered healthy.

Oh, but he wanted to look at him. Again and again and again and never look away.

Kouki coughed and decided to take a leap of faith. Where was this new found bravery coming from, he mused. He held out his hand with a tentative smile,"Furihata Kouki, sophomore, T University."

When his hand was gripped in a slightly larger warmer and paler counterpart, he looked up to see the redhead returning his smile. Oh my. Be still, my heart.

"Akashi Seijuro, sophomore, K University."

Maybe fate wasn't so bad after all. It needed to be a pain in the wrong place to push him to his destiny.


	2. Chapter 2 Kagakuro

OH WOW.

Oh my.

Now that's what I would call a sex GOD, thought Kuroko, as he mentally drooled over the tall guy with the two toned hair and split eyebrows who was standing in line a few agonizing feet away from him.

* * *

Kuroko had started working in the local kindergarten as soon as he had graduated from college. He had previously worked there part time during college which enabled him to shift from part time to full time quite smoothly. He had taken on babysitting jobs as well to earn extra money during college which he hadn't let go of even after graduating. He had discovered to his great delight that he had a special kind of magic with kids, infants and pets alike. They all seemed to calm down whenever he was near. The fellow teachers there considered him a role model in babysitting. Even the brattiest kid on the block would behave like a tame puppy when beside him.

He had started writing short stories for kids when all the stories in the small library of the kindergarten had run out. And soon what had started as a hobby turned into a full on passion for writing. He wrote stories of princes and princesses, of castles and dungeons, of fun and craziness and mischief, of dreams and wishes with morals and ethics mixed in them; he even wrote books on care and nurture of infants, children and pets. He became their famous storyteller and parenting counselor.

He was greatly encouraged by his friends to pursue writing parenting books as a career. He had his best friends Kouki and Shige to thank for putting in long hours of researching, outlining, typesetting and editing the entire thing before the book even reached the first stage of a pulpy manuscript. When the publishing company had accepted his manuscript, he was overjoyed. His stories were going to be published and nothing could equal the happiness that he felt that day.

He had started small and as in all businesses, his first outing had been less than remarkable. But he didn't give up and this fueled him to gradually but steadily make it to the top. Now at the age of thirty, he became a family favorite author for children's stories and his popularity as a parenting guru made him a household name.

He, however, remained bound to reality. After all, he knew, fame was but a fleeting breeze. In every book that he wrote, he would thank the people that made it possible from the bottom of his heart: his first best friend and colleague Shigehiro, his second best friend, brother in law and florist Kouki, his cousin brother and World Shogi champion Seijuro, and all the others who had provided their valuable inputs in making every book of his an actuality.

He knew that without their constant support, motivation, encouragement, kind words, gestures and most of all, faith in him, he wouldn't be where he was today. Thus with every book he strove for improving on what was lacking in the previous one and made sure that he delivered on his promises.

He wrote on actual facts based on extensive research and also from real life experiences. His books became a success mainly because of the stories and anecdotes in them about actual couples that made people connect to it on a real level. It made them feel that its okay to be scared, its okay to not know anything, its okay to learn at any age, its okay to lean on others, and it was definitely okay to make mistakes and learn from them. He observed all of his friends' families for writing material to the point that after the seventh book was published both Shintaro and Seijuro forbade him from "spying" on the antics of their children. Not that it had stopped him. He personally thought they just didn't want people to find out that they had both lost in the face pie eating contest to their kids or the fact that they had been tricked into entering the contest in the first place by Kouki and Kazunari. To be fair, that incident, when it had gotten published spiked the sales through the roof.

The times when the children fell sick, the times they brought a sense of joy, the times when their shenanigans went a bit too far, the worry, the anxiety, the panic, the helplessness, the happiness, the tears, the heart-swelling moments, the care, the solutions to multitude of problems, the too-soon-too-fast-too-precious-moments of their childhood, he wrote them all.

However, being the only person among his small group of friends who was still single at the spectacular age of thirty, sometimes he felt loneliness creep up on him. He wondered whether by writing what actually was a live journal of others' family life, fate had decided to make play the role of guardian throughout his life, but he would feel his instinct politely telling him that he WILL meet a person who will make him feel as precious as Kouki made Seijuro feel. The bond that these couples shared was something he could only fantasize about. Sometimes they communicated via nothing but their eyes, and when he happened to see that it made him feel like intruding on a very private moment. Oh, how he wanted to have a conversation with someone with just a few meaningful glances!

Intimacy evaded him as well. The last time he had kissed a woman was Satsuki when they graduated together from high school and that had felt so wrong to say the least. He had gone on dates with a few men after that but it had never felt right. He eventually started resigning himself to the fact that yes, he was to play the role of an adorable, lovable, babysitter and godfather to his friend's children and nothing more.

It had been years and so many books and failed dates since then that he had lost hope entirely. He was not going to wallow in self pity though. He was a little disappointed, a little envious of what others had and he did not, but he was mostly grateful that he got to spend majority of his time with the lovely children that enrolled in the kindergarten. And it was not like he was not loved; he received fan mail from many many parents thanking him for his helpful advice and children who went Kuroko sensei~ every time he stepped into the classroom.

* * *

Whenever he wrote a new book, he was meant to publicize it by going on a book tour and attending signing events at the local libraries. So here he was, on the last leg of the tour, sitting inside the cozy library of his hometown Tokyo, wearing a suit given to him as a birthday present by Ryouta, glasses that made his cyan eyes look even bigger, perfectly combed hair, polite smile on his usually expressionless face, fantasizing about the burgundy haired guy who was stepping up in line to stand in front of him and get his book signed.

He had noticed the guy as soon as he had entered the hall where he was seated. He was HUGE; almost the same height as Daiki but bulkier than him. His face had a permanent scowl etched upon it that made him look like he was going to kill someone, but he had a feeling that the guy was as harmless as a kitten. It wasn't his fault he was born with a scary face. He had funny eyebrows too; they were split and all of this made him look like a scruffy wild cat. He looked about his age too, if not older. His red eyes were watchful as he carefully made his way through the throng of people taking care as to not jam into others accidentally. He had on black T-shirt and dark blue jeans that hugged his muscular (godly) frame really well. He wore basketball shoes that he recognized as the same brand as Daiki's.

The guy seemed to have a particular book in mind as he quickly made his way over to a particular aisle and picked a book from the top shelf. When he reached for it, Kuroko noticed that, he didn't have to stand on his toes, his shirt had shifted slightly to reveal more drool-worthy abs (OMG, he licked his lips for they were suddenly very dry), the biceps on his arms flexed (oh my) and he thought he was a goner.

Now those were GUNS.

Was he getting aroused just by staring? That awoke him a little. This certainly was a matter to mull over. Was it a natural and healthy reaction to this particular but extremely attractive male or was he so starved that anything would do to quench his thirst?

No. He might have been in the desert for so long but he has NEVER felt this way towards anyone else. All the guys that he had previously dated had deemed him asexual and even when he wanted to correct them, he couldn't find the words. What could he say when he was doubting himself at not able to feel anything? But this two-tone-haired hunk of a tiger had just made his skin tingle just by standing there near the bookshelf ten feet away. He had then picked up one of his books instead and came to stand in the line while reading it.

 _He is in the line, he is in the line_ , his mind chanted like an entranced puppy. He couldn't control the smile that started to spread on his face. And after what seemed like the slowest minutes in the history of time, donning on a polite smile for nameless strangers as he signed their books with their desired dedications, finally, finally, the gorgeous redhead came to stand in front of him. No. He _towered_ over him.

With anticipation, fear, nervousness, excitement and so many other feelings that he couldn't care to name, he offered a hand for the book with a small smile, "Hello. May I?"

"Uh, yeah! Here, thanks! You write pretty great! Makes it easier to understand. I was saved by it many times. Works with the kids like as if I put a spell on them or something. Heh."

He had a deep, gruff voice that made him feel hot all over. He was shuffling his feet a little, scratching his cheek with his forefinger, not meeting his eyes and OH, was that a blush?

But why?

When Kuroko let the words sink in, he felt his throat tighten. Painfully. The guy had kids. He was taken. Taken. The one guy that he was beginning to fall for, if not already fallen for, was taken. He felt his insides churn and twist and writhe as the words resounded in his head again and again.

Years of schooling his expression came to his rescue when all he wanted was to scream and cry angry tears as he threw random things at the wall. He donned another professional smile, which even to him, felt fake and cold and lowered his gaze from the blazing red irises and asked,"Oh, then shall I make it to your family? I would require their names though."

"Oh. Oh! Kagami. Kagami Taiga. Uh, I don't have a family or anything. I am firefighter mostly, but I help out at the local orphanage as their cook. So that's where all the brats come from. They kinda make my life hell. Ha ha. Don't take that the wrong way, I prefer a life in hell with them than without them...sir. They are adorable and I love them to bits but they make me really mad every time they play pranks or something. And yeah, reading your books helped me a lot in being with them without losing my mind, i guess. Except for singing though. When i sing, they start crying...", he said with a nervous laugh as he rubbed his neck and looked down at his toes.

Good. For if he had looked at him then, he would have surely seen the mask slip and reveal an embarrassing blush. Really, his overthinking mind has to be cursed for all eternity. Relief had washed over him like a tidal wave when the guy had finished his short speech.

The redhead was a freaking ANGEL. He had practically fallen down from the heavens above. There was no other explanation to it. A do-good-fireman who helped out at the orphanage was a freaking HERO! And he appeared all gooey and shy which made a totally delicious cinnamon roll.

OH MY GOD?! Where was he all his life? He went thirty years of his life without knowing that his angel was working only ten blocks down? He would have set his own house on fire, if he had known that the angel would swoop down and rescue him. Dammmnnn.

This time he smiled, the warmest he had ever, and quickly wrote what he wanted on the title page of the book and handed it to the captivating redhead, "Here you go, Kagami-kun."(that name sounded so perfect when he voiced it. No. not perfect. It felt right.),"Thank you for your constant support. For anything you need, you may look it up in this book. I am expecting to hear from you soon. Thank you."

"Thanks a bunch, man! You are cool. Bye now! Lunch hour is up."

* * *

Kagami turned and apologized the person standing behind him for taking too long and proceeded his way down the hall. The author was extremely cute and attractive with those huge bottomless pools for eyes and pert nose. He was looking so so pale and fragile during the conversation that he worried whether he had offended him or something. But soon, he had smiled and it wasn't one of those fake ones he was using before; his eyes had smiled too. For some inexplicable reason, it had made his heart beat its way out the rib cage. That moment all he had wanted was to hug the life out of him, then make him food to put some meat on those bones of his. The cute guy had, in that soft voice of his that somehow reminded him of a gentle breeze, said he was expecting to hear from him. What was that supposed to mean? He looked at the book in his hand and flipped it over to the title page. There, written in that blue pen in a neat handwriting, was something that made him stop dead on his track;

To, Kagami Taiga-kun,

With love,

Kuroko Tetsuya (XXX - XXXX)

PS: Dinner would be lovely.

He slowly turned around with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He just knew his jaw was slack now and shock was written all over his features.

The teal haired male gave him an imperceptible nod and a small smile when he met his eyes; he doesn't know how but he somehow just knew that the guy was smirking at him. He felt his face heat up to match his hair and he saw that the author also had a light pink dusting his cheeks that he found totally enchanting.

Somewhere in his heart (whatever it told, he followed since he had found that he was happier that way), he felt that this might be the best day of their lives. EVER.


	3. Chapter 3 Akafuri

Kouki stood in the rain contemplating his life.

For an immortal, he didn't have many memories that were worth reminiscing about.

Immortality took away the pleasure of living, he mused.

He thought about the time when he had turned, or in his case handpicked to be turned, by Hanamiya. He had collected a special set of men to be soldiers in a territorial dispute over a human colony. He thought about the decades spent in fighting his own kind to establish supremacy of Hanamiya's coven above others regarding particular cities and villages. The fights were the worst in his opinion. He had suffered many a battle scar that his skin looked like a canvas of crescent shaped marks.

He was gifted.

He had felt it even in his human form (at the tender age of seventeen, he was of the opinion that it was his charisma; but later on, found out that it was much more. So much more.) He could feel things. Emotions, moods, even thoughts, sometimes, that emanated from whomever he focused on. That was not all. He could make them feel what he wanted them to feel. He could bend people and vampires to his will. Newborns, being volatile as soon as they were turned, with their overwhelming strength were assigned to him to control them. It was for mainly this reason that Hanamiya still kept him around. He could make an entire room full of bloodthirsty vampires, calm or angry as he pleased.

He thought back to the time when he had befriended another soldier, if he could call themselves that, Kuroko Tetsuya. Kuroko survived longer than the rest and was good at fighting though he hated it. He would feel like crying every time he fought though he was incapable of shedding tears. He hated taking away the life of another. Be it a vampire or a puny human. Humans were mere food. They never knew who lorded over their city and refused to believe in their existence.

Newborns lose their effectiveness after a year of turning. Gifted ones like him were kept alive and with the exception of Kuroko, Hanamiya had ordered him to dispose off the rest. It was a normal, routine procedure that they followed among all others that were issued. But one night, when they were in the room waiting for the next newborn to enter, fire roaring beside them, Kouki sensed that Kuroko was not feeling well. The aura surrounding him showed fear, nervousness and had a strange sense of steel to it. He observed that Kuroko had pursed his lips, furrowed his eyebrows and the moment a red-haired newborn - Kagami, if he remembered correctly - entered, he shouted an apology before bolting with the him. He had been hard pressed to follow them and kill them both but he felt averse to do so. All these decades, he had lived only for the fight, for the blood, for territory (did that even matter?) that Kuroko's betrayal to Hanamiya's clan seemed almost like a prison break. Kuroko had finally found someone and he wasn't going to destroy the happiness of possibly the one person he actually cared about in his existence.

He felt the depression settle as he sifted through the years in the same way as before. Nothing but bloodshed and fighting. Create more. Fight. Destroy the rest. Move to a new place. Rinse and repeat. It wasn't until half a decade later when Kuroko came back to see him.

This time, he was properly introduced to his mate, Kagami Taiga.

Mate.

That was new for him.

More than that word, what felt strange for him was the mood that they were engulfed in. It seemed...happy. Content. Joy. Acceptance.

He was flabbergasted when Kuroko told him about the places they had visited and of the vampires that coexisted in peace. How it was peaceful and there were options available to be nomads like them and no need for violence. He believed them because he knew they spoke the truth and also because he wanted to believe them. Anything to escape the hell that he lived in.

In one conversation, he was convinced. He left Hanamiya, glad that he wouldn't have to kill him, without a backward glance. He had been with his creator for almost a century but the bond between them was very fragile. Bonds forged by blood and very little else were too weak. He felt no remorse in walking away.

He traveled with Kagami and Kuroko across the country, exploring the world that they spoke about, stopping only to quench his thirst. But the depression from his fighting years continued to plague him in this new life as well. No fighting happened in the years that he spent with them but still he felt regretful most of the time. Kuroko deciphered that he was at his lowest only when he was hunting.

He could feel the emotions of the pitiful humans that he fed on as they died. He lived their thoughts as he sucked their blood. It sickened him. Part of him, what was left of his soul - if he even had one - died with his prey. He tried resisting but gave up when the thirst became too much to ignore. He felt wrecked for weeks after.

He took leave of Kuroko and Kagami and started to wander on his own, vying for self discovery. Anything to calm the storm raging inside him. Much like the one he was standing in right now.

He stood outside a seedy bar and looked up at the darkened sky as the rain pelted him as if he were made of stone. He didn't feel the rain, so the stone statue reference was right, he thought wryly. It was afternoon ; he shouldn't be out here and should go into the bar for shelter till the rain stopped like every other human but he refrained from doing so. He hadn't eaten in weeks and his eyes were almost pitch black instead of the usual blood red; if he stepped inside he wouldn't be able to restrain himself. Staying out here was a better option to avoid a massacre but he could run the risk of exposure if he didn't move soon. Weighing his options, he steeled himself, hunched his shoulders and pushed open the door of the bar.

The minute he entered he was caught, not by the delicious scent of numerous humans crowded inside the bar, but by the one - obviously non-human - entity sitting on the bar stool and smirking at him.

They hopped off the stool at the counter to skip and stand directly in front of him with an unnatural grace; unnatural even for him. He knew they were of his own kind, but that didn't stop him from thinking that they were extremely attractive with their crimson hair and golden eyes and lean physique and perfect pale skin and a sinfully curved mouth that was right now pouting at him.

It shocked him. In all his years of existence, more like a sentence, actions like this only constituted a declaration of war. But the emotions emanating from the stunning redhead, with the captivating smirk on those full lips that he found himself longing for, were nothing like he had ever encountered. The air was filled with...anticipation, satisfaction, relief and...a sort of warm feeling that he couldn't quite place.

"You have kept me waiting too long, Kouki." the beautiful stranger said in voice like wind chimes but laced with a tinge of reproach.

He could do nothing but stare back before stuttering out in his own velvety voice, " I-I am sorry!" and bowed deeply.

The stranger - the unearthly enchanting stranger - held out their hand and spoke in a soft, melodious voice, "Call me Sei, love. We are going to spend the eternity together after all."

He took the hand without stopping to make sense of the statement or his own actions and felt the warmth of the hand in his. At the smile that tugged at his own lips after seeing the redhead's beaming grin and slowly, carefully interlacing their fingers with his, he _finally_ felt hope.


	4. Chapter 4 Akafuri

He had everything.

Even in the years he had spent as a human, he remembered that he had had everything.

Wealth, social standing, looks, charm, respect, admiration, prestige, power - everything.

* * *

He remembered the privileges he abused, the power he exuded, the commands he mercilessly issued, the conspiracies around him, the plans to overthrow him, the farce that surrounded him, the lowlifes who attacked him and left him bleeding to his death; he remembered them all.

He remembered lying in a pool of his own blood awaiting death before being lifted by someone with ice cold hands, carried into a dingy cellar and placed carefully on top of a table. He remembered teeth biting into his skin at various places and something fiery flowing through his veins. He remembered his creator, Nijimura, asserting that he had done such an act only to save his life from certain death.

He remembered, vividly, the fire that was searing inside him, the flames razing every fiber in his body to dust and turning him into something stronger. Much much stronger and more powerful than he had ever dreamed of. Something abominable. Something that was to be feared of by all mankind.

He remembered the feel of Nijimura's hand in his as his creator sat by his side during the transformation. He remembered the explanations offered by his creator and his mate on what he was, what he will be, what he couldn't do and what he was capable of and what lay ahead of him after this nightmare. He was told about the future of one single day that stretched to infinity.

His capacity to store endless information expanded as he transformed which compelled him to hold on to his memories as a human with a vice grip as they threatened to slip away as he burned. He grasped onto every single memory of his eighteen years of human life regardless of their significance.

One particular memory stood out from the rest.

* * *

It happened on the night he was ambushed. He had finished work early afternoon and planned on spending the evening at Shintarou's. His father had discouraged his friendship with him for the mere fact that he had married into the working class and to a male at that. The son of the director of a prestigious group of hospitals marrying a male bartender caused quite the scandal. He had been forbidden from going to the wedding of course, but that did little to prevent him from attending. He was partly curious to meet the person who had managed to break his stoic, uptight friend's frigid exterior to successfully capture his heart and gain his undivided attention for life. Takao was every bit the polar opposite of Shintarou. Boisterous, ebullient, sarcastic, quick witted, extremely candid even with total strangers. The minutes that he had the pleasure of speaking with Takao were probably the funniest in his life. When he left the wedding (he was among the first to leave, unfortunately) he felt both peace and longing in his chest; peace that his friend was in very capable hands, longing because he didn't have someone whom he could banter incessantly with.

When he visited their home a few months later, he conversed freely with Shintarou over a game of shogi. Kazunari was not due until hours later and that gave both men a chance to catch up on each other's lives and play their favorite game. Time passed fleetingly and he didn't even notice that it was actually late evening until Kazunari barged in, draped himself over Shintarou's back and kissed him on his cheek before placing his chin on his shoulder. The chaste kiss made Seijuro sense a comfortable level of domesticity that he didn't even know he craved for until that moment. And if that wasn't all, the look that they shared spoke volumes.

As they walked him to the door after dinner, arm around their waists, Shintarou kissed Kazunari on top of his head when he thought Seijuro wasn't looking.

That bothered him.

For the first time in eighteen years he felt truly jealous of someone else.

He had everything and at the same time he had nothing.

No one to share it with. No one to play pillow fights with. No one to tease. No one to share all his troubles with. No one to kiss him after coming home from work. No one to spend the rest of his life with. No one to come home to. No one to wake up to. No one to sleep with, cuddle with. No one to make him feel.

He was engrossed in this sudden surge of despair as he walked his way home that he forgot his surroundings. He shook himself out of his melancholic thoughts only too late before the first punch landed on him. Though he was trained in self defense the scumbags easily overpowered him. Suffice it to say his body was just short of shattering by the time they finished with him. He remembered their faces, the demonic smiles, the jeers and the snickers, the curses and the kicks, the beer bottles broken on his head and their cackling laughter as they walked away satisfied that they had done enough damage.

It was his last human memory and wasn't willing to forget even a single second of it.

* * *

When the three excruciatingly painful days of his transformation were at last over, he awoke to his new life as a newborn vampire. He learned, experienced and embraced the life of a reformed newborn. He looked at himself in the mirror for the first time after awakening for his reflection to show the same fiery red hair, picturesque face, lean but muscled structure; all the same as in his human life except for the deep crimson eyes that he sported now. All the broken bones were fully healed now. He suspected that the vampire venom had worked wonders in his body. He recognized the thirst for human blood but with proper guidance from his creator Shuzou and his mate Reo he could abstain himself from slaying an innocent being. With them, he preyed on animals to quench his thirst and control himself from attacking humans. Shuzou was known for not killing even a single human being in all of his 400 years of existence whereas Reo had slipped quite a bit during the first few years before he could adjust himself to this lifestyle. His record was almost as clean as Shuzou.

He murdered all those worthless scum that had harmed him that fateful night, savoring every shriek of terror and scream for help. He took care not to get even one drop of their filthy blood on him or in him. At long last he had avenged himself.

* * *

As a vampire, senses get heightened. The power, the authority, the dominance, the confidence that he exuded as well as his intellect, his mind plays, his innate sense of calculating numerous forms of battle plans and his beauty in his human life grew exponentially. But so did his one fear. The fear of loneliness still plagued him.

He watched his new family expand from being just him, Shuzou and Reo ; in the places that they lived, he was their adopted child though their physical ages were not more than 20; to accommodate Kuroko as his new brother and three decades later, his mate, the wandering nomad, Kagami. When he was the best man at their wedding 5 years later, the feeling of loneliness intensified to the extent that even his thirst couldn't compare.

One time, he left his family in Tokyo and wandered around aimlessly until he reached the forests near Kyoto. He couldn't quite explain it but he felt a...pull? A weak pull but still definitely a pull worth checking out. It wasn't like he was hard pressed for time anyway.

Time had lost its meaning a long time ago even though Kuroko had disagreed and spoke in that soft voice of his, "Every minute spent with your beloved is precious Seijuro-kun. You can never take anything for granted. Especially the time spent with your mate."

He forged his own path through the thick forest following the pull, all the time wondering how a mere human had even wished to traverse such a dangerous area in the first place. He wasn't the only monster out there after all. His musings were cut short at the sight that awaited him in the small clearing in the middle of the forest.

He stood to the side, watching a huge, gigantic titan of a bear mauling a helpless, shivering brunet, one third its size. Under normal circumstances he would have left the pitiful human to his fate but the pull that had been nagging him was definitely coming from the shaking brunet. He felt himself being pained by seeing the brunet suffering. He felt extreme sense of anger at the being harming the brunet. He felt the need to protect the human with everything he had. This feeling of new found possessiveness intensified when he saw the brunet screaming quietly in pain. intensified In one smooth move he threw the bear off the human and proceeded to tear it apart, all of which took only a few moments, courtesy his supernatural speed and strength.

Now that he analysed it, he recognized what the pull meant. The expression worn by the brunet even when he was obviously grimacing in pain, with his dimples showing and his face red, held a kind of innocence to it. Such an expression bothered him. It reminded him so much of Shintarou and Kazunari. He was suddenly flooded with the rush of feelings towards this unknown boy who seemed to be around 17 or 18. New unexplored feelings engulfed him.

He wanted the brunet,

He wanted him for himself.

As his mate.

Now that he had acknowledged it, the pull was so strong that it was almost tangible.

But maybe he had acted a bit too late because by the time he had killed the bear and made a life-changing decision, the boy was close to saying hello to Death. He immediately seated himself at the side of the unconscious brunet to assess whether he was breathing or not and exhaling a relieved sigh when he saw the veins pump steadily in his pale, luscious neck. He was injured, that was no surprise given that he had tried to take on a freaking bear, and was losing blood too (which tested every bit of his resistance). He could turn the brunet himself but wasn't ready to run the risk of drinking too much blood while biting and inadvertently ending the life of the one he wanted to live forever with.

There wasn't much time left; he picked up his precious bundle as carefully as he could and ran all the way at top speed from Kyoto to Tokyo, taking care not to jostle his future mate the slightest. Shuzou would turn him, he was sure of it. Not only was he the expert and the oldest and the wisest among them, he always wished for Seijuro to find one to call his own. He had tried to hide his concern with his gruff exterior but he knew what his creator wanted. And now he wanted it too.

* * *

He stayed near the brunet during the entire transformation process, never leaving his side even for a moment. He held the slightly smaller hand in his all the time and gave him sponge bath every few hours to douse even a little bit of the pain he knew his love was going through. He hugged him tightly as he thrashed around screaming to stop the fire that was mercilessly eating away his bones and muscles and every nerve ending.

He sang to him in hopes that it might calm him even a little and was pleasantly surprised to see it work to a small extent. He explained to the aflame brunet on what was happening to him and what he will be; the same way Shuzou and Reo had done for him.

He often felt contrite for putting the brunet through this bitter ordeal and eternal damnation for his sake. He felt majorly selfish for this act and vowed that he will properly ask the brunet once he awakes and will be satisfied with whatever answer he gets, rejection or not.

Three agonizing days later, the brunet awoke to see the world around him with his sharp, new blood red eyes. He looked at him and gave him a hesitant smile, "Are you the one who sang to me continuously while i was" - he shuddered - "...burning?"

"Yes. Yes I sang to you. I can sing to you every day from now on, if you want that is."

"...I would like that. Very much, in fact." - he averted his eyes at that (if he were human, he would have blushed) - "I am Kouki...and you are?"

"Seijuro. You can call me Sei, my Kouki. Welcome to my world.", he led out his hand.

When his hand was grasped in another and they smiled at each other, Seijuro knew that Kouki was worth the wait. Worth everything that he had gone through to reach this point in life. And when he acquiesced to that fact, for the first time in the century he had existed, he _finally_ felt peace.

* * *

A/n: the last two oneshots are yes, based on Twilight. The last one was Alice and Jasper version and this one being Rosalie and Emmett version. Thank you.


	5. Chapter 5 Akafuri

Ah. Saturdays. The spice of life.

They put the meaning in the phrase 'Thank God Its Friday'.

He wore his old long sleeved dark blue sweatshirt and grey track pants, that was torn at the knees but really comfortable, showered hair that still was a bit wet at the roots and smelling of shampoo, and ventured down to the supermarket a street away to finish his weekly grocery shopping.

He had on his earphones blasting American Pop songs that Kagami had given him long time ago while browsing the aisles. He stopped from time to time to pick something off the shelf and hummed unconsciously to the tunes booming against his eardrums.

He didn't know when exactly he started singing along to the songs and _that_ proved be a fatal mistake.

In all fairness, if he had gotten caught singing 'Firework' or 'Beat It', which were the songs prior to _this_ one, he wouldn't have minded. He would have even sung with the stranger standing beside him.

But that was wishful thinking.

He had to get caught only with _this_ song.

Specifically at _that_ line.

Specifically by _that_ stranger.

He found himself in an extremely awkward situation when the redheaded stranger came up to him and said , "yes." while he was crooning , "…don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me…."

* * *

He had known the redheaded stranger for a while now. They almost had the same shopping schedules. But he had never spoken to him. For more than a year it had been just acknowledging with a nod when they saw the other. He had fantasized about asking for their name someday but was NOT prepared for their first ever actual conversation to be over him swaying his hips slightly, syncing with the beat of the damn song, softly singing the damn lyrics while selecting name brand yogurt.

If he could, he would have liked to erase his and the beautiful strangers' memory of that incident forever. But now he knew that this had no chance of EVER being forgotten.

What was mortifying was that the handsome stranger, after whispering an inviting "yes" to his ear, slipped something into his hand, gave an over-the-shoulder wink _and a smirk_ before they left.

Left him standing near the damned yogurt rack stunned to the bone, jaw slack, eyes bugged, hair at his nape standing straight, still staring at the walkway through which the stranger had exited.

He looked at his hand to find a slip of paper with a few words that sent chills down his spine :-

 _Akashi Seijuro._

 _XXX-XXXX_

 _I_ _hope you won't keep me waiting too long._

Of all the ways concocted by mankind to meet your potential boyfriend, he HAD to use this approach.

Way to go, Kouki, he thought. Now they know that you think Pussycat Dolls are the JAM.

This couldn't get better.


End file.
